Family Cont'd

Seesterz.

Last weekend Maryann and Elizabeth came to see my "home away from home away from home" (First home would be Covington, Louisiana; second home would be Arlington, Virginia; third home is definitely Harrisonburg).

After today, I just have to make it through Tuesday and on Wednesday a day of much driving and flying and thennnnnn... HOME! *does a jig*

I've decided I HAVE to add an aside and tell a quick little anecdote. A day in the life of Amelie, if you will... (This came about because I was reading posts from the begining of the year laughing my head off and wondering how my blog went from funny to recently being somewhat boring and I realized I started posting so much about going RAW and blah blah blah and you can only say so much about that before you're suddenly talking to a roomful of snoozing people). So, having said that, here is my "Lesson Learned" numero uno installment in what I hope to be a very benefitial series where people can read my horror stories and laugh but at the same time never have to go through what I have for the sake of science, nay for the sake of mankind. You're welcome.

This morning I juiced 4 carrots and 2 bunches of parsley. My eyes have been irritated and this is the only thing that I can do to help them. I was late to babysitting, so I poured the cocotion into a glass and ran out the door. On the road, I took a sip. I've had carrot-parsley juice once before so I knew what to expect. But... this was not what I expected. I mean, yea I'd only had it once before, but wasn't it a little tastier... not so... garnishy...? And then all the pieces came together in my head, that day at the grocery store, looking at all the different parsleys (who knew parsley had so much versatility?), seeing the huge price difference from one parsley to the next, choosing the cheaper parsley, taking it home, juicing it, you get the idea. Basically, sitting at a red light on a rainy morning in which I had woken up to my babysittee's mother's call ("weren't you coming this morning at 8am?"), I realized I had bought not parsley parsley, but garnish parsley. Parsley you find on plates a restaurants that you dare some one to eat. Parsley that is bushy and chokey. Parsley that is the son of a motherless dog. Garnish. And let me tell you... Garnish parsley and parsley parsley are so very different, I see that now. And I can't believe I didn't catch that at the grocery store. From this day forward I vow never to just buy the cheaper thing for cheapness sake. I will find 1 other good reason to get it cheaper or else I'll get the more expensive one. And that way I will ensure never to be so rudely awakened at 8:45 am not by a peeved mother looking for her babysitter but by a glass of carrot-bush juice strangling me with it's chalky chokiness.

Lesson learned.

I think I'm going to use the word "auspicious" in this post

On this most auspicious night as I recline on my floral couch, preparing for bed, listning to music, texting my last words to friends, I suddenly come into an air. A state, if you will. It's a sweet sweet spirit of all things family. And as it settles on me I feel totally at peace and at rest. And I know I am blessed. I am so blessed I can hardly sit, I'm floating. That's the kind of air I'm talking about.
Family. Why do people brag about their families as if they were able to pick and choose through a catalog for their great aunt Vidalia who sat next to Pocahontas at a book club? We have no more to do with where we are born into than a drop of rain chooses which puddle to splash into. No, we can't decide who our families are, but someOne did for us. It was all so masterfully thought out from before the age of time where each little being should be born and raised and into what family they should find themselves.
That is why I feel so blessed. To be so intentionally placed, to be chosen for a specific time and place in this world is to have a purpose all in itself that we cannot know but must trust. And family is the epicenter of it all. Where it all begins, happens and ends. Our lives and the changing times swirl around us like a wisp of a dream but our families are the real anchor that ties us to a specific harbor in a specific land. And try as we might to cut the cord, we only hurt ourselves. For when that cord is cut or even loosened, we start to sink ourselves, and we find that what we thought was keeping us bound from a life of adventure on the high seas was actually keeping us from getting swept away with the yellow sea foam, blown and tossed by the wind, or worse: drowned by the rushing and ever-changing currents of the deep deep ocean.
What most people never learn about their "family anchors" is that, like real boat anchors, they serve more purpose than just keeping you in one spot. Anchors are only reeled out every once in a while, when the wind gets rough and the waves get big. Mostly, they are just a part of the identity of the ship, not like they are a vital part of the everyday life of the ship, but, if a storm hits, you better believe they quickly become an integral part of the wellbeing of the ship. And if you knew what you were about, you wouldn't just willingly hop into a boat without a reliable anchor, especially in these crazy times of earthquakes and volcanos... no no, a good anchor is much prefered.
Can you tell I'm going home in a few days? :]

Stickybuns at the Farmer's Market & Other Ironies

I bought my first RAW cookbook as I sucked down a sugary Starbucks drink at B&N. "Here's to my health!" I thought with a grin. Honestly, I have poured myself into learning as much as I can about living raw. It's the most fascinating thing I've come across -ever! Fascinating in the sense that it feels so right. Why wouldn't it be the best thing for our bodies to be fueled by living nutrients. If we are living organisms, doesn't it make sense that we should eat live food? And why is it OK to fill our bodies with dead things like sugar and white flour, baked this and charred that. If we want to be ALIVE then we must partake in foods that are ALIVE. It's so simple. But it is by far the biggest challenge we face in America. Forget starvation, clean water, shelter, money. America is being wasted away by the food industry.

The "food" industry. Now, why doesn't that sounds strange? Because it is normal for an industry to make food. But, we often overlook that it is only for profit. And how is food that was made for profit going to be the best there is for you? Why do plants grow produce? One purpose and one purpose only: fuel. There's no money involved in a plant's agenda. When money is involved everything it touches is instantly tainted. Maybe not completely marred, but DEFINITELY tainted. In "foods" case, it's despicable. The products we buy at the grocery store were made for one thing: to turn a profit. At the end of the day, that's what corporations have as their absolute bottom line: how can we make more money. Granted, there are a few out there who are less greedy than others, I have met billionaires with hearts of gold. But, the "corporation" doesn't have a heart, even though it's legally a "person." A corporation is legally obligated to put profit before any other factor. This applies especially with short-term profit that often has a long-term consequence. (If you can't tell I just watched "The Corporation" documentary and I highly recommend it. Go get it at your local library or rent it, it's worth the trip! Anyways, enough on that tangent. Basically, I'm enraptured by raw foods and how simple yet impossible it all is to just do what we were made to do.

And that applies to all areas of life that fascinate me: Why is it so dang hard to just do what we were made to do?! Be male or be female, be loved and love, create life and care for it, to pass peacefully into eternity. Why is there so much entangling each of these things, making it sometimes impossible to distinguish between just living and truly living. And what is living and what is blah blah blah...

Keep It Simple Stupid. Just do what we were created to do. The simpler the better. Alas, therein lies the uber-rub: the infinite complexity of simplicity.

Sigh... Even though we've come full circle, I don't feel disheartened. I am lead by the Spirit and it's natural. I am drawn to what is natural. And simplicity is natural for me. But, that's not the case for everyone. I spend my spare moments helping/coercing my fellow housemates to Goodwill half their wardrobe and toss the other half. Not to mention the Mount Everests of "stuff" that for some is painfully difficult to part with. To them I simply say: "Poo Poo" like Madeline would. The end.

No but seriously, go through your room and get rid of half of what's in it. You won't regret it. I do it 8 times a year and I have only regretted getting rid of something twice in my life. PRACTICE parting with "stuff." It can only be good for you in the long run. You can't argue that, my friend. You just can't argue with nature. And nature keeps it simple... stupid :]